Marketing Communications

Marketing Communications : Overview

Marketing communication has undergone drastic changes over the last few years. In the past, marketers communicated using a limited number of marketing communication tools like advertising, sales promotions or sales personnel; the number of media options - like radio, television or print media - at their disposal was also limited. In the last couple of decades though, fragmentation of traditional media such as television and print, and the emergence of new or non-traditional media such as the Internet, have made marketing communications much more complex.
Today, marketers can no longer rely completely on a single marketing communication tool like advertising, personal selling or publicity. Instead, recognizing that each element of the communication mix is effective in achieving a specific communication objective, they must choose the right mix of communications tools that will help them best achieve their overall marketing objectives.
Marketing Communications examines the subject from various perspectives, and discusses the strategies that a marketer can use while interacting with different stakeholders through marketing communications mix elements like advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations and direct marketing. The book also highlights the need for integrating the different marketing communications mix elements to present a single consistent image for a company or a brand.

If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying 'Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday,'that's advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that's promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor's flower bed, that's publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations. If the town's citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they'll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that's sales